Robison, Adams help guide Hawkeyes to first Big Ten baseball title

BLOOMINGTON — Hats and gloves littered the field as the Iowa baseball team dog piled just past the pitchers mound.

They'd lay forgotten as the Hawkeyes received their Big Ten Baseball Championship T-shirts and hats. Forgotten as head coach Rick Heller and first baseman Jake Adams gave their postgame interviews. Forgotten as they'd pose with the championship banner as a team.

Drake Robison was the last one to jump on. The senior pitcher threw seven great innings for the Hawkeyes in their 13-4 win over Northwestern in the tournament finale.

Inning after inning, he kept appearing on the mound for Iowa. Realistically, he was only really supposed to last four, and Heller surely would have dived into his bullpen sooner if he'd started to struggle. To his credit, Robison had pitched in some huge games, including the junior college world series at Iowa Western, and Heller felt that experience was critical in starting him.

He knew his senior pitcher wasn't going to shy from the moment and he surely knew he wasn't going to be afraid.

'I just prepared for a moment like this,' Robison said. 'I knew, eventually, the ball was going to be in my hands to win something and I wanted to be ready for that situation.'

Starting for the first time since April 19 — and appearing for the first time since being pulled after just one inning against Omaha — Robinson allowed just one run and four hits on the day.

By the time Iowa gave the ball to Nick Gallagher in the top of the eighth inning, the game had been decided. The Hawkeyes scored five runs in the bottom of the first frame and didn't look back from there.

Jake Adams, who had a miserable tournament until the final two games, was brilliant, going 4-4 with three RBI at the plate, including a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that put the nail in the Wildcat coffin. He also sent a solo shot to center field in the eighth, adding to the Northwestern misery.

The junior first baseman now has 27 home runs on the year, tied for the NCAA lead. It's also tied for the Big Ten record with former Indiana infielder Mike Smith, which, ironically, was tied on the Hoosiers' field.

'At this type of level,' Adams said. 'This is something very special, I got to cherish it for the rest of my life because I don't know if I'll ever get another opportunity like this.'

A year removed from a Big Ten championship loss against Ohio State, the Hawkeyes gave themselves a chance to finish what they started when they came into the tournament as the fifth seed.

Iowa survived close games against Maryland and Nebraska in the first two games, before losing to Minnesota on Saturday. It bounced back in a 13-inning marathon game that evening, which put it in the championship game against the winner of Maryland and Northwestern.

'It's never easy,' Heller said. 'I don't relax until the last out, but once it was over, it was just a bunch of amazing emotions and feelings. Happy for this team, they're really, really special.'

As the celebration started to wind down, players milled around, trying to find the lost gear that was strewn around the field. One player couldn't even find his hat.

However, the Big Ten trophy — the first Iowa's ever won in baseball and the first outright conference title for the university in any sport since 2011 — was clutched tightly in their arms as it was handed off, seemingly at random from player to player.

No forgetting that particular piece of hardware.

l Comments: jordan.hansen@thegazette.com